During a Q&A with fans at the Scare-A-Con convention in upstate New York last weekend, cinema icon Malcolm McDowell was asked to reflect on making Tank Girl, the 1995 comic book adaptation from regular Arrowverse and Doctor Who director Rachel Talalay.
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Telling the fan who asked that she likely enjoyed the film a lot more than he enjoyed making it, McDowell praised his collaborators and clarified that it was the conditions that made it difficult.
“Shooting took place in a disused copper mine in Tucson, Arizona, in the summer. I think in the mine it was like 130 degrees — Oh, what fun we had! And those poor bastards in those bunny suits….It’s one of those things. It was a fun part and I did like Lori Petty, who I felt was so talented. It was sort of fun. I always have fun when I work, that’s a given, otherwise I wouldn’t have taken the job.”
Tank Girl is a cult favorite, which drew mediocre box office and mostly poor reviews at the time. The film has lived on thanks to home video, and even recently got a deluxe Blu-ray treatment. Petty has gone on to appear in things like Orange is the New Black and Bates Motel. Other actors in the film included a very young Naomi Watts, plus Ice-T and Reg E. Cathey.
Ice-T and Cathey are both among the “bunny”-suited people McDowell talks about. They were actually mutant, humanoid kangaroos in the film, but the idea of them having long ears and costumes that would be decidedly uncomfortable in the heat is certainly right.
Tank Girl centers on the titular character, an impoverished and ultra-violent young woman living in a scorchingly hot future where war and pollution have left the world a wasteland. The richest of the rich control supplies of water and electricity, and McDowell played the head of the public/private utility Water & Power. When Tank Girl tries to steal water to help the poor people in her community survive, she comes into conflict with McDowell’s Kesslee.
He added, “I think there’s something to be said for the movie. People love it, so good.”
Tank Girl is available for sale or rental on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital. You can stream it for free as part of your CBS All Access subscription.
